47,094 research outputs found
A Constrained Tectonics Model for Coronal Heating
An analytical and numerical treatment is given of a constrained version of
the tectonics model developed by Priest, Heyvaerts, & Title [2002]. We begin
with an initial uniform magnetic field that is
line-tied at the surfaces and . This initial configuration is
twisted by photospheric footpoint motion that is assumed to depend on only one
coordinate () transverse to the initial magnetic field. The geometric
constraints imposed by our assumption precludes the occurrence of reconnection
and secondary instabilities, but enables us to follow for long times the
dissipation of energy due to the effects of resistivity and viscosity. In this
limit, we demonstrate that when the coherence time of random photospheric
footpoint motion is much smaller by several orders of magnitude compared with
the resistive diffusion time, the heating due to Ohmic and viscous dissipation
becomes independent of the resistivity of the plasma. Furthermore, we obtain
scaling relations that suggest that even if reconnection and/or secondary
instabilities were to limit the build-up of magnetic energy in such a model,
the overall heating rate will still be independent of the resistivity
Experiments on the dynamic behavior of cavitating pumps
This paper describes experiments performed to measure the dynamic transfer matrices for cavitating (and noncavitating) pumps. These transfer matrices describe the relationship between small linear oscillatory perturbations in the pressures and mass flow rates at inlet and discharge from the hydraulic machine. The matrices were deduced from direct measurements of these fluctuating quantities for different modes of excitation of the machine. Results for a cavitating inducer are presented as functions of frequency and mean operating state. Though some of the trends in the data are consistent with existing theoretical models of inducer dynamics, others are not, indicating a need for further theoretical investigation of the dynamic characteristics of such flows. The results exhibit increasingly complex dynamics with increasing cavitation; it appears that the hydraulic machine deviates from an essentially passive response without cavitation to an increasingly active response as the cavitation number is reduced
Electrostatic Structures in Space Plasmas: Stability of Two-dimensional Magnetic Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal Modes
Electrostatic structures have been observed in many regions of space plasmas,
including the solar wind, the magnetosphere, the auroral acceleration region,
and in association with shocks, turbulence, and magnetic reconnection. Due to
potentially large amplitude of electric fields within these structures, their
effects on particle heating, scattering, or acceleration can be important. One
possible theoretical description of some of these structures is the concept of
Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal (BGK) modes, which are exact nonlinear solutions of
the Vlasov-Poisson system of equations in collisionless kinetic theory. BGK
modes have been studied extensively for many decades, predominately in one
dimension (1D), although there have been observations showing that some of
these structures have clear 3D features. While there have been approximate
solutions of higher dimensional BGK modes, an exact 3D BGK mode solution in a
finite magnetic field has not been found yet. Recently we have constructed
exact solutions of 2D BGK modes in a magnetized plasma with finite magnetic
field strength in order to gain insights of the ultimate 3D theory [Ng,
Bhattacharjee, and Skiff, Phys. Plasmas 13, 055903 (2006)]. Based on the
analytic form of these solutions, as well as Particle-in-Cell (PIC)
simulations, we will present numerical studies of their stability for different
levels of background magnetic field strength.Comment: Submitted to AIP Journal Proceedings for "Tenth Annual International
Astrophysics Conference
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